That’s right. I didn’t. Yes, I know that sort of defeats the whole purpose of writing an MMF post, but I wanted to participate somehow. I haven’t been able to participate in a few of the past months because I was too busy or because I couldn’t find my copies of the manga. (Where the heck ARE you After School Nightmare?!)

There are a few reasons why I’ve shirked reading One Piece:

1. There were no copies of the first omnibus on the shelves of any bookstore that I went to in the months since the One Piece Manga Moveable Feast was scheduled. If there had been, I probably would have guilted myself into buying it. I was too lazy to buy it online. (More specifically, I don’t really trust the postal system or delivery services after my college job.) I didn’t want to buy the first three volumes separately because what if I didn’t really like it? Then I have volumes I don’t want to read wasting precious apartment space. With an omnibus, it just felt easier to slide in.

2. Shounen manga isn’t my thing. At all. I am a shoujo manga person by heart. I get upset when I realize I’ve been ignoring my favorite shoujo series for other awesome stuff like Black Jack or Real or some gekiga manga. (No really, I have gotten upset that I haven’t read the latest volumes of Kimi ni Todoke because I’ve been focusing on reading other genres.) I haven’t read too many shounen manga that I’d even want to buy. Someone gave me a copy of Soul Eater not too long ago and I don’t want to continue the series on my own. The only shounen manga I’ve bought for myself recently is Cross Game (because I know there’s a romantic aspect) and a couple of copies of Shounen Jump (for research.)

3. Frankly, the idea of picking up a series that is already 60 volumes long, with no clear end in sight, is terrifying. I haven’t collected any series longer than about 35 volumes. Bookshelf space is precious to me because I live in a tiny apartment right now. One Piece just seems like the kind of thing I’d be more interested in if I had space to spare. I do not. Trying to smartly use the space that I have for non-manga stuff is hard enough already… I don’t even have enough room for my entire collection to boot! A sizable chunk is still at my mom’s place. Maybe when I have a bigger place and tons of shelves to call my own.

I know what the reaction to this post is going to be. Some people will probably berate me for being so stupid about not trying One Piece out. Others might offer to send me a copy (which is nice of you, but if we aren’t close, I won’t accept it. Thank you for the nice gesture, though.) Some people will be disappointed in me, either silently or openly and that is fine. I’ve expected all that. Some might suggest I face the series from a different vantage point (there’s been lots of talk about how later arcs of One Piece are more engaging than the beginning), but I’m a bit of a purist. I’d much rather get started from the beginning and be interested enough to continue collecting.

So I’m not reading One Piece right now.

I’ll still keep an eye out for that first omnibus though.

If you want to read more about the One Piece Manga Moveable Feast, however, I suggest looking elsewhere.

20 responses to “November MMF: I didn’t read One Piece”

That right there. That’s my issue. I love shonen manga, way, way too much, but the longest thing I’ve ever bought caps out at 32 volumes. A 60+ series is insane, and looking at the two shelves it takes up in Barnes & Noble stops my heart.

Which is why I’m buying the omnibus for my boyfriend for Christmas and putting the burden on him.

Shounen manga series’ length is probably my biggest challenge to reading them these days (the other difficulty is being, like you, a shoujo-fan). I don’t intend to start buying any 30+ volume series that isn’t Kaze Hikaru anytime soon (29 was just released in Japan, and at Viz’s current once-a-year release rate who knows when we’ll ever see that here). (…I take it back—if a publisher licensed Ren’ai Catalog or rescued From Eroica With Love, I would absolutely buy them.)

Actually though, I do happen to have a few volumes of One Piece right now that I picked up from the library (the collections there always seem to start at 12 or 13 and I’m not motivated enough to put earlier volumes on hold, but I found 1-2 and 6-10 the other day). Now my challenge is to make time to read them…

Definitely! I also find that by volume 20 or so I lose focus a lot. I can’t remember details and stuff, so when it gets referenced in another volume I just go: huh???????? I would certainly buy all the volumes of From Eroica With Love too, but at least with that series, it’s basically a two man-show with a limited number of other regular cast members the author expects you to be familiar with.

He’s a pretty good comic reader. He started Bleach and Naruto a few years late, but caught up on each within a couple of months.

I did not realize the omnibuses were coming out so slow – the last one was all the way back in May? What’s up with that? Now I’m nervous about starting with those, because I’m crazy and need everything to match, but I’m also too impatient to wait for VIZ to pop out the next one when they feel like it…

My boyfriend’s just not as into comics as I am. He’ll read stuff I recommend to him, but he doesn’t really follow anything but Blade of the Immortal.

They do come out kind of slow. I guess the logic behind that is that in English, One Piece isn’t as popular as Naruto. Despite that…Are there even omnibus editions of Naruto? I don’t think there are. Anyway, it’s obviously popular enough to demand reprinting like that. It’s a smart move on Viz’s part. At least new readers will get a fairly easy access point into a longer series.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber got into comics as a kid in the book section of a department store. Then she fell in love with manga in Egypt. Now she works as a manga editor, writes this blog and is way too geeky about manga all the time.